Chicago developers can either set aside 1 in 10 units in new housing developments as below-market units or pay $100,000 for every unit they don’t build into an affordable housing fund. Guess what downtown condo builders typically do? They pay the fee.

So city officials are considering requiring that developers actually build affordable units, or at least raising the per-unit fee for those they don’t.

“If the city is going to advance policies that could shut down development again … I would hope and expect the real estate community would stand up and say, ‘We can’t do that,’ ” Paul Colgan, a consultant hired by the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago to fight the idea, tells Crain’s Chicago Business. Source: chicagobusiness.com.